Welcome back to One Century Ago, a collaboration between Patch and the Historical Society serving Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown.

After a hiatus, the column is back, bringing you the front page of a local newspaper that covered the news in Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow (North Tarrytown) one hundred years ago.

This front page comes from the Tarrytown Press-Record. The Press-Record was published as a weekly from 1893 to 1946 and has been preserved by the Historical Society on microfilm.

Tarrytown Press-Record, November 3, 1911

An Odd Incident

 As new and entertaining as automobiles were in 1911, the most interesting auto news for the week happened not on the road, but in the now-defunct Maxwell-Briscoe auto factory.

On November 2, 1911, a worker on the shop floor was toiling near a roller machine when he stepped too close. The machine snatched a loose sleeve and started pulling the man toward the machine, and his potential doom.

What could have been a gruesome accident ended up being one of the lighter news pieces for the day, as the Press-Record reported, “every stitch of clothing with the exception of his shoes and stockings was torn off him,” leaving the man bare on the shop floor. The worker was uninjured, but no doubt shaken up.

Some Political Pushiness

 Folks these days love to comment about the press being biased toward either the right or left; the same must have been true 100 years ago. The Press-Record didn’t seem to mind clearly underlining who they supported politically.

In two small pieces at the bottom of the paper, almost invisible to the casual eye, is a clear call to support the Democratic party in the November elections. One column states their position emphatically, going so far as to tell residents where they should make their check marks at the polls.

“Vote the Democratic ticket straight. It is deserving of your support. From top to bottom it is A1,“ the paper said.

As if to lure in a skeptical voter or two, another small paragraph gives a cursory explanation as to why residents should vote Democratic.

“As a result of the Democratic victory in the State last year the Democrats in the coming election will have the first column on the ballot. It is a long time since the democrats have had this honor and it will be a long time before it will be taken away from them.”

Horticulture Takes Center Stage

One of the largest annual events in the Village, the 13th annual fall exhibition of the Tarrytown Horticultural Society, took place at the Tarrytown Music Hall.

The three-day event brought gardeners from Massachusetts, Connecticut and greater New York, who showed off displays of finely kept roses, palms, ferns, chrysanthemums and orchids.

The Press-Record noted the exhibition was “finer in every respect” than previous exhibitions, and that the Music Hall was a “bower of bloom and beauty from end to end."

Of local note, William Rockefeller entered a number of chrysanthemums into competition, along with his gardener George Middleton. Rockefeller failed to take top prize in any of the events for the year.

Castle Girls Have Splendid Halloween

The Press-Record painted a nice portrait of Halloween celebrations at the Castle School. The paper noted that the school girls walked into their dining room to find all of the lights had been extinguished and a wood fired cracked “merrily in the immense fire place." The girls sang songs together in the room, surrounded by decorations of autumn leaves and flowers.

The all-girls Castle School was established in the late 19th century off of Union Avenue on what is now Castle Heights Road. The school housed dozens of girls from all over the United States and the Americas. In 1911, girls at The Castle came from 35 states and had proudly sent Class of 1910 graduates to higher education at Wellesley College and the Universities of Ohio and Chicago.

The school was razed in the mid-20th century to make way for residential homes.

Noted Dentist Dies

Dr. Ermina P. Roe succumbed to typhoid fever on November 2, 1911, sending shock waves throughout the region.

Roe was noted as being one of the few, if not the only, female dentists in the state who had an active practice of dentistry covering everything from hygiene to surgery.

Erimina was married to Dr. Townsend Roe in 1872. Both made their way to Tarrytown to establish their dental practice.

The paper noted that Townsend was suffering from the “especially hard blow” of losing his wife and business partner.

For more local history, visit the Historical Society on Grove Street. Information can be found on their website: www.thehistoricalsociety.net. Currently on display are artifacts from the Civil War.